Around Annapolis: Firefighters bring love of reading and sense of trust to local children

By Aries Matheos, Correspondent, Capital Gazette

Firefighter and actor Nano Gowland, a 23-year veteran stationed at Company 40 in West Annapolis, reads to the children of the Annapolis Family Support Center on Wednesday to prompt excitement about reading before the children picked books to take home from the hundreds of books local firefighters collected.

Firefighter and actor Nano Gowland, a 23-year veteran stationed at Company 40 in West Annapolis, reads to the children of the Annapolis Family Support Center on Wednesday to prompt excitement about reading before the children picked books to take home from the hundreds of books local firefighters collected. (By Aries Matheos, Correspondent, Capital Gazette)

Local firefighters take 300 to 400 donated books to the Annapolis Family Support Center.

"Clifford the Big Red Dog" found a new home at the Annapolis Family Support Center along with 300 to 400 other donated books courtesy of a new partnership between local firefighters and the Maryland Family Network.

Firefighter and actor Nano Gowland brought Clifford to life through his animated reading of "Clifford the Firehouse Dog," beginning Wednesday's book distribution event organized by 10-year firefighter and paramedic Brian Holtslander of Company 17 in Arnold.

Holtslander proposed bringing the event to the center at 80 West Street after seeing a similar book distribution event by the Maryland Family Network in Carroll County. "Public service is very important to us both on and off the job and I think this was a great opportunity for us to interact with people in a positive way since we usually see people on a very bad day," he said "We're trying to cultivate a love of reading at an early age because it is so developmentally important."

He has big expectations for the next generation and hopes that these books the families of the center took home with them will help their children be the best they can be.

"I expect big things out of these kids since they're the next generation and I think books and reading encourage children to explore the world around them so hopefully with what the firehouses collected these children are excited to read and learn," Holstlander said.

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Holstlander's wish came to fruition as Gowland finished his reading and a little girl immediately handed him another book from a nearby book shelf, ready for seconds.

"We want these children to understand reading is exciting and is an adventure," Holstlander said. "I think we got just as much out of this as the kids did."

America McKinney, a mother of two young girls who have been coming to the center for three years, appreciates the support of the firefighters and the center in her mission to instill a love of learning through reading in her children.

"My kids love to read and when I get home from work they rush over to me saying 'mommy read a book, read a book,' so I know how important it is to children to be read to and how much they enjoy it," McKinney said. "It makes me really happy to have this kind of support with the development of my children."

The director of the Annapolis center, Stacey King, said that it and the 24 other centers in Maryland serve newborns to 3 year olds and their parents with the goal of encouraging children to be enthusiastic learners and successful members of society by supporting parents. "We really focus on providing self-sufficiency through our programs like the GED program, in-home intervention program, and school readiness programs," King said. "We operate on the idea of a trickle effect. By supporting the parents, we believe the children will benefit from their parents success and go on to model that."

Executive Director of the Maryland Family Network, Margaret Williams, said the educational lessons reading provides is crucial to young minds.

"It's so amazing to me that these firefighters who serve us everyday have taken the time out of their already busy schedule to serve our community in a different way and when you look at studies on the education benefits of reading to children early in life, what these firefighters are doing becomes even more inspiring because of its importance in the next generation," Williams said. "Research shows that reading to young children improvs their word reception, vocabulary, social and emotional development and so much more."

Williams views reading as the key to unlocking a successful future for the next generation.

"Regular bedtime reading is essential because language is the gateway to learning and overall success," Williams said. "A study showed that low income kids know a fraction of the words middle class children do for a variety of reasons including not having access to books at home, so the opportunity to build an at-home library for the children who attend Family Support Centers is a huge deal to their success as they move into pre-K."

King also said besides the opportunity to build a home library from the books the firefighters brought to the center, she wants to make sure that these children build trust of authority figures.

"I want these children to understand that community leaders and authority figures in uniforms are good things," King said. "I want to make sure the children understand that they are safe with these people and being able to interact with them in a fun way, like today, will help build that trust."

Excited by the special day and Gowland's reading, the children voraciously scoured through the table where donated books were spread out. Doug Lent, MFN communications director, said this is what the day was all about.

"We saw a need and wanted to meet that need," Lent said. "The excitement of these kids over the books is what today was all about for us."

Ginger Cove helps oysters

Residents of the Ginger Cove retirement community in Annapolis are helping restore oysters through the Oyster Restoration Project operated by the Department of Natural Resources and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation making Ginger Cove the only retirement community to help raise oysters through the Marylanders Grow Oyster program.

For 14 years John Kenny ran the oyster gardening program at Ginger Cove. He has been joined by Meade Rudasill, Gene Avallone, Dwight Barlett and Bill Clark.

Scholarship recipients

The Annapolis Rotary Club recently gave $1,000 scholarships to Broadneck High School graduates who expressed commitment to community service and plan to attend a college or university.

Recipients include Jack O'Keefe who will study chemical engineering at the University of Maryland's Advanced Cyber Security Experience for Students honors program, Claire W. Whitaker who is attending Wellesley College for math, botany and art, Graeme B. Joyce, who is headed to Brigham Young University for computer science and Drew McMenamin who will study computer science the University of Maryland.